This invention relates to a conveyor-distributor apparatus for handling flat rectangular items such as letters and is of the type that has a conveyor channel in which the items are advanced in a substantially horizontal direction while guided, at their lower edge, by a supporting face forming the floor of the conveyor channel. The apparatus further has, along the conveyor channel, a plurality of successively arranged and arbitrarily operated deflector switches. With each deflector switch there is associated a guiding device in which the direction of motion and the orientation of the deflected items are so changed that the items eventually arrive in a stacking container in an orientation which is substantially perpendicular to their earlier direction of motion. In the stacking container the items lie in a face-to-face, superpositioned relationship and thus form a stack.
A conveyor-distributor apparatus of the above-outlined type which serves for the sorting and stacking of sheet-like items is known and is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,137,499. The guiding devices which are arranged between the outlets of the deflector switches and the respective stacking containers are each formed of a significantly bent deflecting shell whose hollow side is oriented downwardly, and two pairs of conveyor rollers adapted to the course of the deflector face of the shell. The deflecting surface, in the zone of its lower edge oriented towards the stacking container, forms with the horizontal an acute angle, the apex of which is oriented towards that deflector shell which is situated downstream when viewed in the direction of conveyance. The conveyor roller pairs serve for the forced feed of the items along the underside (deflecting surface) of the deflecting shell.
The above-outlined known apparatus is adapted only for handling flexible and relatively thin items. Thus, it cannot be used for letters, particularly letters of large format.